Harry Potter and the Will of Three
by Myddryn Emrys
Summary: What if three of the greatest magic user in history were to join forces to battle against a rising darkness that Volemorte is only the symptom and not the cause.
1. Death

Harry Potter was a boy of 15; he stood 5'10'' with strong well-formed muscles and well-chiselled features. His black hair, longer than it seemed stood on all angles giving him a roguish quality that softened his serious expression, and largish round glasses gave him a bookishness that was offset by the feature that would otherwise have drawn the most attention; a set of sparkling emerald eyes that expressed a thousand different emotions that sought there way onto his face. He was strong and emotional, possessing a quick wit that was often understated. He was in the higher section of his class when it came to academics and was noble and kind to most that knew him. He was going into a fine man, yet all of this often when unnoticed as there was two features about him that was superimposed on top of all of that; first was the large and ratty clothes that he wore that gave him a starved and worn expression, the other was a lightning bolt scar that played across the right side of his forehead. The events that happened to him over the past 5 years left him traumatised and ambivalent to the snide remarks that his family shot at him as the first weeks of the holiday past. He ate what he was given did whatever chores were set him and what ever else that he was expected to do. All without response or even any sign of acknowledgement besides preforming what ever task that was set.

He was wasting away and there was nothing that anybody could do about it, though there still was the destiny that was his and that refused to have its vessel ruined. He needed to be ready, he would be ready, even if the fates had to snap the boy out of it, it would. For in the morbidly depressed hands of a 15 year old lay what could possibly be the fate of all things. For alongside everything else Harry Potter was powerful in ways that could not be imagined; and on this day Harry Potter would receive a visitor that would change everything. For on this day Death was coming for him.

It started out much differently than one would expect, given the general contempt that was shown to him, but in the room that was strewn with the discards of several emotional outbursts lay the result of many years of emotional torment. Sun shining through the window woke him as he slapped himself in a vain attempt to swat away the offending stimuli. Groggily sitting up he saw a figure sitting on the stool in front of his desk seemingly content to wait for the youth to wake on his own. The figure features could not be seen as the midnight black holocaust cloak hid any visage of what lay beneath, yet for all that it seemed that on could tell small things that otherwise would be impossible to tell for instance the direction of the creature's gaze.

Harry looked at the spectre with curiosity and waited for it to speak. It didn't. The figure just watched and appraised him, finally the spectre spoke,

"As amusing as this is there is a matter of some import that dragged me from my work for the purpose of speaking with you, so I will not sit here and tolerate this fool-hardy silence that you surround yourself with" pausing to wait for the others nod to continue, " I have come in order to gain your assistance in a matter that is pressing and can only be brought to a conclusion with your assistance, thus I am here to get it.

" There is a balance to all things that happen and though this balance all things function, now it seems that this balance is being threatened and it falls to you to set things straight. There are places you need to be and things you need to do and I have come to see that you do them."

All this was spoken in a voice that sounded soft and commanding as though describing a tree, that is to say that what he spoke of was simple immovable fact, it would happen and it would happen as he said it.

" Who are you?" Harry said finally having sat there for a few moments, his voice scratchy from ill use. The reply was chilling.

" Death, ruler of the Realm of the Dead."

" What do you want? Why me?"

" To fix the balance that supports all living things. I am Death and my brother Life have a balance, we may try to again an upper hand between the two of us but it still remains that the balance must be kept; the result of the balance being destroyed is not a thing that one would wish to contemplate. For the result would be a world without death or a world without life. Voldemorte is trying to circumvent that balance he is killing those that are supposed to live and allowing others to live that are supposed to die. Evil is not supposed to be as unified as it is now, just as those that resist evil are not. This way the Balance between Good and Evil are arranged so that their struggle is small. Voldemorte is trying, and to some extent succeeding to bring to bear the power of the demonic forces that guide of the world in much the same way as the gods, but for the fact that the gods protect the continuance of life, these demons are trying to end it. We need you to stop that." Death explained

"As to why it is you who must do this, nearly all life is made to adapt it self, to become stronger in order to survive." Harry nodded to show that he followed, "Do you know how it is the Killing Curse works?" Harry shook his head confused, " It works as a tear between your soul and your body." Seeing the blank look that that statement brought he added " Your soul is your mind, your emotions, your will. It is the core of everything that is you, the curse tears it away and destroys the way that they connect leaving nothing but a dry husk of that which was once a living being. When your mother died to defend you she bent her entire will upon one action, keeping you alive, this in conjunction with her sacrifice created a bridge between your soul and your body that the Killing curse could not break; yet when it hit some of the magic fused the bridge into place and created a doorway between yourself and Voldemorte. The curse then travelled through this doorway and hit him, but through the many rituals that he went through the destruction was wrought upon the body thus destroying it.

" But in the process your body underwent changes, your soul, body and magic where linked together as a whole, you also carry the substance of your mother's love in your blood willing you to live." Death looked to Harry to see if he understood,

" When Voldemorte possessed you and forced himself through you, it required himself and yourself to join and when you forced him out it ripped away a large section of his magic and kept it for yourself. Nothing that would make him weaker, just you stronger, Voldemorte's magic was accepted in to yours because of the bond and the previous graft of his magic. Now Voldemorte as you know is the heir of Slytheryn and the basilisk in your second year was his bonded familiar so when it's blood mixed with yours combined with the phoenix tears bonded the animals D.N.A. with yours further changing you so that you possess small parts of them inside yourself augmenting you. Now add the infinitesimal amount of the Philosopher's Stone that made it's way into your blood stream and you find yourself not quite human but something else entirely. You are unique; part phoenix, part basilisk (both immortal creatures) and a small amount of the elixir of life fused into your blood. Your magic carries the combined weight of your large amount of magic to begin with joined with the magical grafts of Voldemorte, which is joined firmly into your body." Death finished and looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry looked at once awed, incredulous and fearful

" Are you saying that I am immortal or something?" he said with a laugh that spoke of obvious impossibility.

"If not immortal than very long lived, now we must be gone to prepare you for what is to come"

With that the god stood and walked over to Harry and reached out to touch his shoulder. A second later they were gone and the only thing that remained there was the broken things that once belonged to Harry's cousin.


	2. The Wood

Harry Potter and Death appeared in the middle of a large forest, the green and browns of millennia old trees surrounded them and for the first time in his life he seemed to feel life surrounding him welcoming him to itself. Harry felt as if this place was home in a sense that he never knew before, it was almost as if he was supposed to be there. He walked around completely forgetting the fact that he was not alone, whilst the companion watch in amusement as the youth petted and spoke words of greeting to the trees. Finally he spoke,

" There are many things that you must learn before you are ready to take the place that is set aside for you. Here is where you will start the journey. Often times we, the gods, have heard that you have wish to be alone and not bring danger to those that you care for, so I have brought you here. You will not be disturbed for quite sometime, and perhaps when you are you shall be ready. Everything that you need is right here. So I will go, I shall see you again." With that Death was done and Harry was alone in a forest and he felt a peace, that he had never felt before.

Deciding to look around his new home he found that the wood was alive with thousands and thousands of voices guiding him as to the best places to find food, fallen wood for housing and the best ways to build it. Time passed slowly as the wood taught him how to live, both in the forest and with the things that happened to and around him. Over the first several months there, Harry had built a nice little house filled with all of the things he might need. He was learning things about the world and the things inside it that he was sure that he would never see the world in the same way ever again. Months turned into years and he heard the sounds of conversations everywhere on the wind, from animals, the trees, the sky everything in the wood spoke to him and wanted to teach him how to live, how to survive. All throughout this time he missed his friends dearly yet he knew that what he was learning was as important to the learning of magic, he was how ever concerned that so much time had passed and he was here. Years passed quickly and though he had more companionship than he knew how to deal with there was still something missing in his world. Then one day, in what seemed like several hundred years in the wood, Harry got a visitor.

The years had been kind to him and the learning that was given and the solitude had given Harry a quiet wisdom that showed itself through his every movement. Over the years he had learned the order and the processes of life, how to move silently and quickly, how to change form, talk to any form of life, hunt, fish, built, garden, he learnt the properties of all manner of flowers, herbs, and the like, in short he learned the ways and the processes of life itself. He could manipulate nature in much the same was as elementals and he could navigate his way through The Wood. Now it had taken Harry many years before he found out the significance of where he was, and once he did he made sure that he would be able to find his way through it. Druids believed that trees were sacred and that they stood for the very basic elements that made up life. It was believed that there was a great central tree that represented the whole world, and in a sense they were right and it stood in the very centre of The Wood, what was not so commonly known was that along side the Great Tree was that the wood it self was a way between the worlds, time and space. This is where Harry spent his time; this is the place that Harry learned from. Living the way that he did made him strong, stronger than he was before and he was taller. In the first 5 years Harry grew 8" to 6'6" filled with a complex array of muscle that made him faster, stronger and more agile.

On this day Harry was just finishing a mediation technique that he had learned over the years. The air was fresh and Harry felt rejuvenated, he looked over the horizon and felt a strong entity coming his way. A figure approached him and as he arrived spoke saying,

" The time that you have spent here has come to an end. You must go out into the world and learn of magic as you have learnt of life, you must become knowledgeable in the power that you possess and be willing and able to use it to save the Order from destruction."

Over the years alone with no company bar the trees and animals Harry had almost forgotten the speech of men, slowly the words made sense to him and he stared blankly at the other.

" Please sit with me, talk with me it has been some time since I last spoke with a creature such as me and I fear that I have missed it greatly." So saying Harry lead the way to a table in the study that he had made for himself. "Tell me, who are you who come to me this day so that I may welcome you properly."

"I am Life, guardian of the living; you have met my brother sometime ago, let us eat as we speak" Life said as he sat, food appearing on the table. " You have changed much in your time here and you still have further to go. You must go into the world of men that you have been separated from these many years and learn." Harry recognised the truth of what he was told and as they ate and drank, Harry felt a strange sensation spread throughout his body almost as if he had drank a large quantity of Pepper-up potion, at length he recognised what was happening and was lost as to what to say. Harry had just eaten of the Fruits of Life and such as it was, things had just changed forever.

During there meal they spoke of things of no consequence and enjoyed their fellowship. As Life left, Harry knew that it was time to go and thought of where he should start this great odyssey of learning and could think of no better place than on of the greatest library ever to be beheld in human history, The great library in Alexandria. Knowing his way through The Wood, he stood and left sending a found farewell to the place he had called home for the better part of half a millennia.


	3. Time Jump

Harry had been studying now for so long that his past was receded into his memory like a strange dream. Thousands of years had come and gone and still he remained studying and recording the events that he read about and saw. The collection of writings in his study contained copies of books he had made, observations on the realities of the ancient times he visited. Forwards and backwards, world after world, different dimensions, he lived through and catalogued. The Greeks, Romans, Celts, Gaels, Tuatha Dé Danann, Turk; the various forms of witchcraft from slight of hand to the various kinds of magic witches and wizards used to house elves and other kinds of foreign magic that other magical creatures and the gods used. On top of that he made sure that he was watching the events unfold in history for himself, whether peasant, serf or general. Nothing escaped his watchful eye. Legends grew around him in various forms; the wandering hero, the lonely scholar, the watcher of the worlds that search endlessly for some task so great that not even the gods could comprehend it. Out of all that he went through in his learning in The Wood and in the world of all of the hundreds and thousands of thousand years two things stuck almost viciously in his mind.

The first was in his study he had found a copy of the legendary Book of Physicians and found a potion that looked promising for the affects the be gotten from it. It took him 3 years of reflection and study to find and collect all of the necessary ingredients, a further 2 to mix them together correctly and then 1 year and 1 day of constant stirring and mending a fire in order to simmer it down to three drops of the most amazing potion that the world would only twice.

With a surprising amount of hesitance, Harry Potter drank the three drops of clear liquid. Everything disappeared and he faced a world of darkness and pain, horrors beyond imaging contained within an abyss that consumed all hope and love everything good was sucked into it like a planetary dementor feeding on all of the worlds. Harry felt a despair that he would fight till the day that he might die, no matter how far that might be, fighting to make sure that what he felt never happened. As he was about to throw on the towel, light appeared before him and his mind was filled with truth, all the ugliness and beauty of it. Professor Albus Dumbledore once said that the truth was a wonderful and dangerous thing, which should be treated with caution. Harry Potter, Silent Watcher of the Worlds, Protector of the Balance of Life and Death, Incitant into the Mysteries of men and the gods knew the absolute truth of all things, the knowledge of the ages and he was both awed and deathly afraid. The prophecy that had been given took new meaning and it was bigger and more horrifying than he had known at the beginning.

"_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…_

_born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…_

_and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…_

_and either my die at the hand of the other for neither can live as the other survives…_

_the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"_

Tom Riddle invoked the King of Demons into himself along side other rituals tapped his power and this is what he was facing.

The second thing that was sitting with him was less earth shattering; he was lonely.

Now after all these years it was time to find the two people to help him defend what was theirs to defend. The first was Taliesin penn Beirdd, the second Myddrin Emrys.


End file.
